1 min read
This amazing video from Delve.tv shares some ideas about why we do art. The video is incredibly inspiring and I encourage you to watch it.
As the video suggests, artists certainly struggle in our world so be sure to offer support to Delve.tv on Patreon.
Personally, the question of why we value popularity is one that makes me curious. Of course, I am usure that I want the answer. It might be somewhat depressing.
4 min read
As we wrap up another season of the bad movie podcast, my thoughts move to what is next for the show. I've got a few ideas and a list of movies that friends, fans and our awesome reviewers have suggested. Please take a look at my musings and let me know what you think. I'd really appreciate your opinion. Comment in FB, tweet at me or the Film Frown account. There are 3 things I would like to accomplish with future shows.
Welcome to Film Smile?
First up is an idea we had during one of the shows this past season. In the episode it came to my attention that we may be experiencing some bad movie fatigue. That is, Armin pointed out that he is not sure what "good" is anymore thanks to all the bad movies we've had him watch. Paul agreed and we started talking about watching a good movie to do a hard reset on ourselves.
I like the idea of flipping the script and watching a great movie. Is it something we need to do once a season? Perhaps, midway through to give ourselves a bit of a reprieve?
It's Clobbering Time
Prior to last season, I put a call out for people to vote for what movies we were going to watch. My list of films included suggestions from fans and a heavy helping of superhero films. I wanted to revisit the old hero movies because currently it seems like "superhero" is an entire genre. On my list was the Roger Corman version of the Fantastic Four. One of my friends suggested that we watch all 3 Fantastic Four films since the latest one was in the theaters very recently. It's obvious that the co-architect of Tent, Daniel is a very smart guy and I would be remiss if I didn't follow that suggestion.
We could do each film individually as we normally do, or perhaps watch all 3 and discuss them in one episode. While the second idea is tempting, it would certainly mean more time upfront for our reviewers. The upside for listeners, is only one episode of awful Fantastic Four.
Generation Gap
One of the more interesting things that has spawned from doing the show is the variety of opinions and reviews from our guests. As a host, I have injected a number of films into the podcast that are from my youth. There are times when the film does not hold up to my youthful memories and other occasions where Paul and guests help me see that I am most likely blinded by nostalgia.
I believe that Paul has also noticed this phenomenon recently because Armin has volunteered to be on the show a number of times this past season. While Paul and myself are from different generations, Armin is even younger and has a fresh take on the older gems we watch. This has inspired me to seek out some reviewers older than myself.
I've always wanted the show to be diverse. Is it the corporate propaganda of "diversity in hiring" I've been exposed to in my career? Honestly, I never wanted the podcast to be "yet another group of dudes." For the guests, I have always looked to my friends that I knew loved movies or anyone crazy enough to do a podcast. Hopefully, in the next season I can get some guests that are from different age groups and continue to pick movies from various time periods.
Examining the reaction of different generations is fascinating. What makes a movie a classic? How do classics survive the passage of time? While we all have individual tastes, I think the answers to those 2 questions can be found by talking to a diverse group of reviewers. And hey! All those reality shows are built on the premise of conflict. So the more diverse the group of reviewers that we have on Film Frown, the more likely we'll have some higher ratings!
1 min read
Excited. Nervous. See you in a week. We're headed to the Dominican Republic for a warm x-mas.
1 min read
This speech is absolutely amazing. The full transcript can be found here. I found it thanks to a post by Ben Werdmüller.
#democracy #violence #war #intelligenceservices #encryption #signal #minorities #intolerance #technology
5 min read
Welcome to my new space on the web. This site is the next step in controlling my data. I’ve stopped using Google Search, Gmail and the rest of the Google services in order to maintain my privacy and choose how I share my content. I no longer wish to be a product. Say what soapbox man? Search you are the product and learn all about how you aren’t a customer of Facebook or Google.
In the internet’s infancy, you had to know the address, the URL for the page that you wanted to visit. While so many internet service providers were merely connecting people to the World Wide Web, America Online created a centralized network. They offered services, chatrooms and pages within their network. At one point, AOL had so many users that advertisers would rather have a page & keyword there than build a webpage online. Many AOL users had no need to access the world wide web, nor did they know how. This single company had a large amount of influence over online users until broadband internet came along and the even bigger cable companies were able to pull people off of AOL.
As the web and search engines grew, we no longer needed to have the exact URL recorded somewhere. The new search engines were so frequently visited that they were the best place to advertise. The data search engines recorded also became useful to advertisers.
Which terms do people search most often?
Which pages did users click on when using that term?
Who are these users?
How do you build your site so it appears at the top of a search?
Then, social networks like Twitter & Facebook came into existence. Now advertisers could get all sorts of user data. People who were reluctant to give out phone numbers and email addresses to online retailers were more than happy to share both (and so much more) with friends & family through the social networks.
Much like AOL back in the day, these new social networks are so popular that some of us feel compelled to join them because they’re the only way to communicate with some of our friends & family (not that it works). Once again, we are using a centralized service. One where we have to sign up and agree to give up our data to advertisers in order to participate.
This website built using Known is a small step to changing that. My posts here are syndicated to the larger networks I choose. In other words, the data originates here and is under my control to share with Facebook/Twitter/Google at my discretion. As you can see above, Twitter & FB likes & comments show up here to continue the conversation. No, it’s not the perfect solution because I am still part of these centralized data collection systems. Instead, it’s more like a hybrid car. Obviously, transportation must stop relying on nonrenewable resources and a hybrid that still uses gas is not the answer.
Known is built on the principles of the IndieWebCamp which has already built some really great tools to make this happen. Webmention is a magical protocol that allows individual websites to communicate with each other. Well, it seems magical to me because I’m no programmer (yet, here I am using it)! My very intelligent acquaintance Jenna has built his website from the ground up and it uses Webmention. I’m not as smart as Jeena, but Known has Webmention built in as well. Here on this site, I commented on a post Jeena made on his site. When you visit Jeena’s original post you will see my post as a comment.
Webmention works like email. That is, you and I don’t need to be members of the same central provider to communicate. I can send an email to your Gmail account, even though I don’t use Gmail. That’s the incredible power of a decentralized system. Imagine a world where you didn’t need to join Twitter to stay connected to brother, Instagram to see pictures of your nephew and Facebook to receive invites to events.
We live in a world where so many of us are eager to be their own bosses. So why sign a convoluted contract? These user agreements are so full of policy loopholes they need their own web pages. Why not take control of your data? I encourage to check out Known to host your own site and support the great project. Those of you with a technical background can download Known and put it on your own domain or poke around the IndieWebCamp site to learn how to learn how to implement the principles.
a Geek & Poke cartoon shared via Attribution 3.0 CC
